“There were three of them, there in the shrubs. Standing at about two and a half feet tall, although the one in the middle was slightly bigger made. It looked as if the two little ones were his bodyguards, the way they flanked him,” one of the eye-witnesses said.

Within weeks of aliens being sighted in Galle and Neboda, the landing of a flying saucer on the banks of Kirindiya Thanamalvwila area was reported last week. An year 8 student of Thanamalvila National school, G.W.Suranga who came to the river in the evening of July 23rd is said to have eye-witnessed the incident.

Suranga who narrated his awful experience said "I with my grandmother, and elder sister went for our usual evening bath in the river. When we were returning home we saw three persons, not more than two feet in height, standing near the junction. They were dark complexioned and wearing hats. When I pointed at them to my sister they took to their heels and soon disappeared into the jungle. The time was about 6.30"

Several others are said to have seen the mysterious creatures frequenting the Sarvodaya site at Thanamalvila at dusk on the following day.

President of Universal Research Society Dr. Nissanka Jayadeva, who is conducting research on aliens visited the area on inspection, but he was not able to find substantial evidence of aliens excluding mysterious footprints. On 25th the researchers went in search of the mysterious beings in two groups. Their mission that day was successful.

" I with several others followed the mysterious foot prints. I advised others in the group not to desert the group. Several persons in Galle and Neboda fainted and had a severe headache when the aliens kept on looking at them. Their footprints were clearly visible in the sand. We proceeded in slow pace without making any notice until we were only a few feet away from them. Chamara, who was an enterprising young man in our group, went so close as 20 feet from them. There were three creatures that had only three fingers in their hands and feet. This was sufficient proof that the foot prints on the sand were theirs." Dr. Jayadeva said.

W.M.Chamara who played an active role in the expedition, said, " We proceeded on the instructions of Dr. Nissanka. All of a sudden we heard a rattling noise from the thickets. We stopped for a while and observed the area from where we heard the noise.

There were three creatures, one of them taller than others. They were not more than 2 feet tall. The tallest at once turned his head and looked at me. His eyes were blue and bright. I felt faint when I was looking at him. At once I jumped at them with a club in my hand, but they were so swift that they disappeared into the jungle within a fraction of a second. They were gray in colour and did not have hair. I have no doubt that they are aliens and I believe the reports from Galle and Neboda on similar incidents"

" This is the first time a team of researchers havebeen confronted with aliens. It is no longer a legend now. There is no doubt that aliens from other planets had relations with men on earth in the far-gone days.

I am of opinion that they are preparing to renew their relations with us. I did not see them in Galle or at Neboda. However, I eye witnessed them at Thanamalvila and it is a novel experience that encourages me to conduct further research." Dr. Jayadeva added.

Kurumitto in Thanamalwila?

By Dharmarathne Wijesundera@ The Nation / 30 July 2006

“They had small mouths and ears that were about three inches long. Their limbs were very thin, their arms were about as thick as two of our fingers. They were blacker than buffalo and didn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I felt something in their gaze that I had never felt before. They told me later that I had fainted. I think the aliens sent me into a trance”

A teledrama aired on state television recently is believed to have sparked a series of ‘alien’ sightings around the country. It will be recalled how the release of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. in 1982 resulted in a massive increase in the number of sightings around America. None of the sightings have been confirmed by a credible authority to date, but the country’s lack of expertise in this scientific area may mean that the stories will remain stories and the questions will go unanswered for a long time to come.

The latest of these Sri Lankan encounters, incidentally also the most seemingly credible to date, took place in Thanamalvila in the Moneragala District last week.

“There were three of them, there in the shrubs. Standing at about two and a half feet tall, although the one in the middle was slightly bigger made. It looked as if the two little ones were his bodyguards, the way they flanked him,” one of the eye-witnesses said.

“They had small mouths and ears that were about three inches long. Their limbs were very thin, their arms were about as thick as two of our fingers. They were blacker than buffalo and didn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I felt something in their gaze that I had never felt before. They told me later that I had fainted. I think the aliens sent me into a trance”

This one is not for the sceptics. It is not a story meant to cause panic or for some, to give false hope. It is merely what some 50 people witnessed in a remote village in Sri Lanka’s Uva Province – a place with little access to electronic entertainment and high-flown scientific theories about extra-terrestrial life. But for three days, beginning last Sunday (23), the little village was abuzz with multiple sightings of what the people claim had to be extra terrestrial beings. The thing that separates this from all other stories of alleged alien sightings is simply the number of people that claimed to have seen the creatures and the fact that they all have an uniform description of what they saw.

We heard of the latest ‘sighting’ on Wednesday evening. By late that night, we had braved fuel strikes and all manner of odds to get to the spot. Knowing that we were expected at some point, our guide for the assignment, Mr. Yapa stayed awake.

We began our observation mission immediately. It was almost midnight. Thanamalwila is in the Moneragala District, one of the remotest areas of the country. The sighting was inside a reserve close to the town centre. It is almost beside a Sarvodaya learning camp in the area. Villagers claim to have seen three strange creatures – in broad daylight.

One of the residents, Nissanka Ranadeva had covered a few spots in the sand in front of his house with aluminium pots and pans. By torchlight, he lifted these utensils to reveal odd-looking footprints in the sand. The footprint showed clearly that whatever these creatures were, they had three toes and heels. There were over eight or nine such prints on the sandy garden. We got the impression that constant viewing and the passing of three days since the initial sighting had wiped away most of the prints.

The first to see the three strange creatures were an elderly lady and her grandchildren. They stay close to the Sarvodaya centre. “It was about five or six in the evening of the 23rd. There is a three way junction near our house, surrounded by shrub jungle. My grandson, Ujitha Tharanga and my granddaughter Udeshika Madhushani and I were walking towards our house. Ujitha suddenly shouted ‘Look, Achchi, three people are looking at us.’ I couldn’t see much. My eyesight is quite weak. And we were quite far away,” R.M. Seelawathi explains her encounter.

Madhushani saw things a little more clearly. She is a 12th year student at the Thanamalwila National College. “We saw three mysterious people. I have never seen people like that. All three were very short. The one in the middle was slightly taller than the others. They stared at us for a while and then they ran into the forest,” she said.

Her brother Ujitha claims they disappeared altogether suddenly. He described the three little men. The description was fairly stereotypical, although in a single aspect, the image did not fit with your common or garden E.T. The villagers saw big, glowing eyes and large heads on the dwarf men, but he also described them as black skinned.

At 6 a.m. the next day, three young women in the area, Merani, Sagarika and Rasika saw the same three creatures on the banks of a small stream, a tributary of the Kirindi Oya that flows through the little forest reserve. The stream borders the Thanamalwila town on one side and the Sarvodaya camp on the other. The three village girls headed down to the stream for a bath and were midway through it when they spotted three small men staring at them from about 100 metres away on the river bank. As before, the creatures had run away the moment they realised they had been spotted. The three girls were not available for comment. But we made our way towards the spot where they claimed to have seen the ‘aliens.’ Like in Nissanka’s garden, there were footprints along the river bank, identical to those we had previously seen.

Nissanka is a lecturer at the Sarvodaya camp and apparently shows a keen interest in the inexplicable. Together with 10 of his students, including the three girls who spotted the creatures by the river, Nissanka made his way to the water’s edge. They found nothing but footprints. “They were like the prints of a cormorant,” says 20-year old Chamara Prasad Nissanka, who accompanied his teacher.

After lunch the group set out again. This time there had been almost 25 of them engaged in the mission. They were exploring another area covered in shrubs. As they combed through the forest, about 10 feet apart from each other, Chamara says he heard the sound of twigs cracking. “I looked towards the area from where I was hearing the noises. There they were, the three we were looking for. Like dwarfs. Their eyes were yellow and sometimes glowed blue from time to time. I don’t know what happened to me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. In a few seconds, they had run away,” Chamara said.

Manishka Sampath, another member of the search mission, also saw the three creatures. He says they had no hair and snub noses. “They had small mouths and ears that were about three inches long. Their limbs were very thin, their arms were about as thick as two of our fingers. They were blacker than buffalo and didn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I felt something in their gaze that I had never felt before. They told me later that I had fainted. I think the aliens sent me into a trance,” this boy tells us. On Tuesday (25) night residents of Thanamalvila say they saw a great light in the midst of the jungle. After lighting up a large area for a few seconds, the light went out. Two residents Sarvodaya employees, L.A.P. Dissanayake and Ranbanda say they saw the light at about 10 p.m. “We never saw such a light. After it went out, there was a faint star light like glow that remained for about half an hour,” Dissanayake said.

Easily dismissible as a result of too much TV? Perhaps. With Sri Lanka’s lack of expertise in the area of astronomy, these villagers claims may just amount to being another tall tale. But with the number of witnesses and the evidence of footprints in the sand, Thanamalwila may just have been a treasure trove for UFO enthusiasts and alien hunters. And who knows? Maybe even for a real space scientist – if he were available.